Best Practices for Transition to Value-Based Purchasing

A recent Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report authored by consulting firm Bailit Health Purchasing identified numerous challenges organizations can face during the transition to value-based payments. Some of these challenges include a lack of affiliations with payers and other providers, a state government apathetic about payment reform, selecting the wrong population to conduct a pilot test of the reform program, and inadequate organizational size and resources.

The research is based on interviews conducted with nine RWJF grantees that received financial support to implement payment reform within their communities. These projects were funded through two competitive calls for proposals, released in 2010 and 2011, that aimed to identify and support innovative payment models. The grantees were diverse, including, for example, quality improvement organizations, provider groups, and a state government body. In addition to the interviews, the authors drew upon their experiences with the RWJF Aligning Forces for Quality alliances, the experiences of other RWJF payment reform technical assistance providers, and the authors’ independent work in payment reform.